Jax Sinclair
Terry Best and Lorna Best
Keeley Harnum looking at fur
Donna Chamberland with pies
Floyd Kunnas talks about bears
Lead historical interpreter Dayle Oster
Visions of the area’s fur trading past came to life as Fort George and Buckingham House hosted its annual Bears and Berries festival on Saturday, welcoming people from near and far to take in its displays, berry pies, activities, and of course, picturesque site and fort remains by the river.
David Bechtal, a visitor from Calgary, said it was a “complete fluke” that turned out to be a happy accident that he and his family ended up at the site on the same day as the festival.
“I’m actually a descendant of Peter Fidler,” he said, referring to the British surveyor, fur-trader and explorer whose statue graces the entrance to Elk Point. His interest in Fidler led him to finding out about Fort George and Buckingham House, which is why his family stopped by at the site – and of course, Elk Point’s statue - on the way to Cold Lake’s air show.
“We like stopping at Alberta museums,” he said with a smile, adding that the centre helped him feel a connection with his ancestor and Canada’s fur-trading history. “It’s hard not to look at the river and think of canoes with fur-traders going through. You look at the landscape and imagine what it was, to survive the winter out here. My imagination goes to that sort of thing.”
That evocative feeling is exactly what Fort George and Buckingham wants to give people, says lead historical interpreter Dayle Oster, who led the young children visiting the site through activities like making plaster casts comparing their hand prints to a bear’s paw, t-shirt colouring, and going on a treasure hunt through the site in exchange for treats, followed by a teddy bear picnic.
“The whole purpose of our site is to give people an experience,” she said. “If we can give the kids an experience, and they can learn a thing or two about history and about Alberta’s landscape, that’s our goal.”
Oster says over the course of her four month position, before returning to school at the University of Alberta, she leads school groups through the site, followed by being among the planners for festivals such as this one, with support and help from The Friends of The Forts.
The Bears and Berries festival gave the young children a chance to try activities with historical significance too, such as making birch bark baskets. More survival activities will be on the agenda when the site hosts its second festival of the summer, Bushcraft 1792, to be held on Aug. 27, and giving a people a chance to live like the fur-traders and First Nations did, reckoning with the wild.
“Living off the land and seeing the nature around us is always a beneficial experience,” Oster says.
